Last weekend, Kyle Busch had an eventful weekend.
Last Friday, Kyle Busch won the Camping World Truck Series race to take over the owner’s points championship standings for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Then on Saturday, Busch finished second to Carl Edwards in the Nationwide Series race, though was unhappy about it as he thought Edwards jumped the start.
“Does it f—- matter?” Busch said afterwards. “Race is over, guy’s in Victory Lane.”
Lastly on Sunday, Busch stirred up controversy again, following repairs that he had to make on pit road after a wreck.
Under caution, Busch sped off pit road to try to beat the pace car and stay on the lead lap. He caught up, but NASCAR penalized him one lap for speeding.
Busch then went on a rant on the radio against NASCAR and showed the officials the middle finger on pit road, which incurred a penalty of two laps for driver misconduct.
“I’m the only one who will stand up to ’em, and they’re gonna show me how far I can stand up,” Busch said on the radio after the penalty. He then added that it was freedom of speech, going against the constitutional rights of everybody.
NASCAR announced on Tuesday they were penalizing Busch $25,000 and putting him on probation till December 31st for “actions dentimental to the sport of stock car racing”.
In all sports, there are teams that you love and then teams you hate. The same theory applies in NASCAR, as there are drivers you love and then those you hate. A simple poll of the fans easily shows that one of the drivers that seems to be on everybody’s list is Kyle Busch. In simply asking a group of fans as to why, you quickly get the sense it has to do with attitude and actions like the above.
“He just gives off this vibe that he is better then everybody else and it’s all about him,” Evan Towle said. “Sort of like a young Tony Stewart used to be. Tony used to get on my nerves when he first started in NASCAR, but now he has matured and I like him.”
“I tend to agree with a lot that the way Kyle Busch acts,” Kyle Sedan said. “Sometimes it’s rather annoying.”
“Arrogant attitude, expects respect on the track but doesn’t give it back, whines about others when he is doing the same thing, fake.” One fan commented.
“His attitude.” Cathy Gamble Costigan simply puts it.
If you take his attitude out of the equation, then a lot of people seem to have respect for him.
“I am, personally, a Tony Stewart fan, but for Kyle, love him or hate him, he is a damn good driver,” Mike Hearty said. “Race wins don’t lie.”
“I do really like his support/involvement and commitment to short-track racing.” Sedan added.
A lot of people have been debating that he needs to change, which has come with mixed reactions.
Towle says, “We don’t need him, as the sport is doing fine without his babyish acts.”
In some ways, there are certain things that Busch has to become better at, such as some of the things that we saw this past weekend.
However overall, the sport needs somebody like Busch. His actions spruce things up and add something different to the sport are needed to invoke discussion and rivalry. If everybody was the same cut, wouldn’t it get boring after awhile?
As Mike Hearty and Kyle Sedan both say, it adds to the sport.
“I personally love Kyle’s attitude myself,” Hearty said. “NASCAR is entertainment and Kyle entertains in any way he can. Each sport needs a stand out person the fans can have a choice to love or hate and he is the one. I do believe, though, when he matures more, his attitude will die down. I think he is young and is a star and living in the moment right now.”
“People either ‘love him’ or ‘love to hate him’,” Sedan says. “So he most definitely adds to the sport, and it is good for it.”
This is something that you always see around the short tracks, as every short track has that one driver that fans would love to see win or lose.
For my local short track, Sunset Speedway, it’s Tom Walters and people take it as “love or hate him, he puts fans in the stands.” There were even some that went as far to say that they were just pure “ABW: Anybody But Walters.” For Walters, it deals with his aggressive on-track style in how he likes to use his bumper.
At the end of the season, yes, he did frustrate some of us through the year, though he made the late model competition interesting this year with debates over some of his moves. Evidence of that can be seen on both Canadian Racing Online (http://www.canadianracingonline.com) and Inside Track Motorsports News’ Pit Board (http://www.insidetracknews.com) where fans have proceeded to debate whether Walters was in the right or the wrong with his moves.
Discussion like that or discussion over Busch’s latest antic on or off the track is what keeps the discussion lively with debate for everybody. It’s also what brings out most fans’ colors, showing what they truly believe in.
If you’re looking back at the NASCAR season, recall that controversy, whether it be Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer’s penalty, or the Jeff-and-Jeff show is what got the fans most riled up in saying what they had to say. Busch is just a piece of that, as there were moments this year when he did certain things that got fans either right angry or happy.
So, the next time you come to the point where you’re wishing that Busch would just go away or that you could wave a magic wand over him to change him, think about the fun discussions you’ve got to have due to him.
